This invention relates to an improved land levelling device.
Farms in particular have a need for flat, or smooth land. The reasons for this are many-fold, but include vehicular access, animal safety and the like. Devices are known for use in land levelling, but such devices have, to date, been crude and inefficient.
Land levelling devices are typically employed in clearing and levelling drain tailings, repairing pugged land, reducing hillside cattle ruts, repairing farm tracks, and in the cultivation and contouring of land.
Objects of the present invention are to provide an improved land levelling device that, when towed behind a tractor or other towing vehicle, can improve the flatness of a land surface by removing material from high spots and relocating it in low spots, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
The present invention broadly provides a land levelling device including a front transverse blade, a rear transverse blade, a coupling means for attaching the levelling device to the three-point linkage of a towing vehicle in use, and a joining means which joins together said front blade and said rear blade wherein said front blade has a bottom blade edge and a front surface that slopes upwardly and rearwardly from said bottom blade edge, and said rear blade has a lower edge which lies substantially in a common plane with said bottom edge of said front blade, the construction and arrangement being such that in use mounds or bumps in the ground are sheared off by the front blade and pass over it to be redistributed into hollows by the rear blade. Preferably the land levelling device includes a support frame on which is mounted a front, transversely extending, blade, a rear, transversely extending, blade, and a coupling means for, in use, attaching the land levelling device to a towing vehicle, the support frame mounting the front and rear blades in substantially parallel spaced apart relationship wherein said front blade has a cutting edge projecting foremost, and a cutting face angled backwardly and upwardly from the cutting edge toward the support frame, and wherein said rear blade has a lower edge which lies below, or at least co-planar with, the cutting edge of the front blade, the construction and arrangement of the front and rear blades being such that in use mounds or bumps in the ground are sheared off by the front blade and pass over it to be redistributed into hollows in the ground by the rear blade.
As used herein the terms xe2x80x9cearthxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cgroundxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clandxe2x80x9d are intended to include reference to gravel, organic or inorganic waste material, or any other material intended to be spread over an area.
Conveniently the front blade is oriented at an angle of between 20 degrees and 50 degrees from the horizontal upwardly and rearwardly away from the cutting edge.
Preferably the front blade is configured and arranged to provide a ramped surface so that, in use, earth cut by the cutting edge is separated from the ground beneath and is lifted up the ramped surface by the forward motion of the land levelling device and dumped in front of the oncoming rear blade.
Optionally the cutting edge of the front blade and the lower edge of the rear blade are co-planar. However, and more desirably, the lower edge of the rear blade projects downwardly of the support frame beyond the cutting edge of the front blade.
Desirably the land levelling device further includes a levelling plate mounted from the bottom edge of the rear blade. Preferably the land levelling device further includes a rear wall upstanding from the rear blade to, in use, trap earth cut by the front blade and hold it available for redistribution by the levelling plate of the rear blade.
Desirably the land levelling device further includes upstanding side walls extending between the corresponding ends of the front and rear blades, the side walls being attached, one at each end, to the rear wall.
Preferably the coupling means is configured and arranged to enable, in use, attachment of the land levelling device to a three-point linkage of a towing vehicle.